Hungary has joined the development of Germany’s new battle tank, the Panther KF51, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Wednesday on his TikTok channel.
“We make Lynxes, we buy Leopards and we have joined the development of the Panther,” Orbán said.
According to the manufacturer, Germany’s Rheinmetall, the 59-ton, digitally controlled Panther KF51 will shoot farther and aim far more accurately than the country’s current main battle tank, the Leopard 2. The Panthers are equipped with the same 1,475-horsepower diesel engine as the Leopard 2 tanks, but since they are more than 10 tons lighter than their predecessors when fully armed, they will be much more agile than the Leopards.
In addition, they are equipped with automatically loaded 130 mm smoothbore cannons, which are larger than the Leopards’ 120 mm cannon. The Panther cannon, developed by Rheinmetall, can fire both kinetic and programmable shells and can carry 20 shells at a time. A 12.7 mm machine gun is also standard, but a variety of remotely controlled weapon systems (RCWS) can be incorporated into the tank.
The Lynx Orbán referred to is an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) also made by Rheinmetall, which will also be manufactured in a plant opened last week in Zalaegerszeg, western Hungary. The plant is now the largest military production facility in Hungary.
Orbán’s announcement also put an end to speculation that began last week when at the official opening of the Hungarian plant there was also a Panther on display, triggering guesses that the new tank will also be manufactured in Hungary.
Regarding the Panther KF51, Rheinmetall briefly announced prior to the prime minister’s TikTok video that global supply chains will be used to develop the combat vehicle and that production will also involve countries that plan to operate the tank. According to military analysts, Germany plans to convince current export customers of the Leopard 2 to switch to the Panther.
There is one other tank development currently underway in Europe, the EMBT, where Leopard chassis manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegman, together with French manufacturer Nexter, is trying to pair the German armored chassis with the turret of the Leclerc tank, equipped with an automatic loading tank gun, through the KNDS military-industrial alliance.
